OCC students to have new robots thanks to GM

GM Eobotics Engineer Bob Berger, left, and robotics instructor John Sefcovic with the two robots the General Motors is donating to Oakland Community College Auburn Hills campus. Monday, June 16, 2014. Tim Thompson-The Oakland Press

GM Eobotics Engineer Bob Berger with one of the two robots the General Motors is donating to Oakland Community College Auburn Hills campus. Monday, June 16, 2014. Tim Thompson-The Oakland Press

Students in the Robotic Automation Program at Oakland Community College Auburn Hills Campus will have new opportunities to reprogram automotive robots to new uses with the donation of used plant floor machines by General Motors Corp..

The bulky yellow giants appeared as though sleeping after a long career working in the automotive plans as they were unloaded from a truck at the Technology building.

But once the robots are situated in their new home alongside a variety of other models of various sizes and job descriptions, robotics automation instruction John Sefcovic will bring them to life to demonstrate how they once worked on the line at one of the GM plants.

GM donated the robots, valued at $10,000 each, because they are making process changes in their Fairfax assembly plants. The robots will be used as hands-on learning tools for students learning robotics operation, basic programming, advanced programming and functions, simulation and mechanical and controller maintenance for an associate’s degree in Robotics/Automation Technology .

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Sefcovic is excited about the possibilities for his students. The advanced students in the class will be given the challenge of reprogramming the spot welders to work together as a team Until now, the robots have worked individually on the line.

Once students are done with their assignment, “One robot will do the welding and the other will pick up the part and put it in front of the other,” Sefcovic said. “They will move together. This will make their performance faster and they will be more efficient.”

Students in the Robotic Automation program earn a two-year associate degree after taking seven classes in robotics The first two classes are in maintenance and designed to build a solid foundation for the five programming course.

“By the end of the program, they are creating complex applications based on problems we give them. We want to teach them to develop cognitive skills so they can analyze and creatively solve problems,” Sefcovic said, noting, “We take the system approach,”

Most who enroll in the program are older than the traditional high school graduate. Some are looking for a career change, others have been laid off and need to learn a new career, others are engineers who want to learn more about how the robots work. More newly graduated high school students are enrolling than in the past, though.

“You can show somebody how to tighten a bolt, but our graduates understand the system,” Sefcovic said.

“In Michigan and especially in Oakland County, there are systems integration companies that take a robot and make it into an automation robot the customer wants,” Sefcovic said, noting that other industries are following automotive companies in turning repetitive jobs over to robots.’

In recent years, GM has also donated robots to Oakland University, Macomb Community College and Wayne State University.

“It is important to GM to promote STEM-related opportunities whenever possible to encourage and promote students’ interest in these subjects as they will be the future of the industry,” Bob Berger, GM Manufacturing Robotics engineer located at the Warren Tech Center in Warren, said,

“This is also a great way for GM to give back to the community and invest in human resources. Who knows, maybe someday (the students) will come to work at GM,” Berger said.